As for copyright owners, the DMCA provides an efficient tool to stop copyright infringement. Copyright owners may ask service providers to remove or disable access to allegedly copyright-infringing works.
DMCA also gives copyright owners the right to ask the clerk of any United States district court to issue a subpoena to service providers to reveal the identity of an alleged copyright infringer.
A. Safe Harbor ProvisionsThe DMCA provides four safe harbor provisions for service providers:
To be eligible for any of the safe harbor provisions, a service provider must:
B. Service Providers' Takedown Procedures
For a service provider that provides information location tools (e.g., search engines), the service provider is further required under DMCA to implement takedown procedures to be immune from copyright infringement liability. Upon notification from a copyright owner of a copyright infringement, a service provider must:
C. Copyright Owners' Notifications
To trigger a service provider's obligation to remove or disable access to the copyrighted material, a copyright owner must notify the service provider of the alleged copyright infringement. The notification must:
D. Links to Takedown Procedures by Service Providers
On their websites, major service providers have provided takedown procedures and policies for DMCA compliance. Below is a list of useful links to some of the service providers' takedown procedures, policies, and online notification forms:
Google – http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
Yahoo! – http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/copyright/en-us/
You Tube – http://www.youtube.com/t/dmca_policy
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php
Twitter – http://support.twitter.com/entries/15795-copyright-anddmca-Policy
Flickr – http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/copyright/en-us/
AOL – http://legal.aol.com/copyright-reporting/
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=copyright_policy
To find out more please access our IP Primer page.